The google now doesn't seem that great and also buggy. She doesn't really say much... i mean i know its just a gimmick but if you want to impress your friends or an iphone user she should "say" more things. And, the biggest deal breaker is when i try to do just a general search of something, I cant click and open the Links. Only ONE time when i clicked a Link it let me choose chrome as a default and its never opened a link again. Guess im sticking with the old fashion way. other than that this ROM is epic!
I don't think Google now is a gimmick at all. It's meant to be functional, not a personal assistant like Siri. Sure, certain questions will get you a voice response answer, but it can do a lot more than that and it learns form your use of it. The implementation in this ROM (and any ICS ROM) is from a hack that allows it to be used on ICS. It's written for JB. Your problem with opening links is due to this. Right now, the only way to use the general search function is to press the little magnifying glass to the right of the actual link, this will bring up page preview mode, you can then scroll thru the pages (left - right) and click the page you want to open. The Google Now experience is much more complete on a true JB ROM, but I am glad that the Devs included it in this one.